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Festival royalty combines grit and grace

Ashley C. Hinson
2:43 p.m. CDT August 9, 2014

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Ms. Opelousas Spice and Music Festival Queen Jackie Gradnigo, second from left, is surrounded by visiting queens as they tour the Opelousas Museum and Interpretive Center.
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With more than 10 pageant titles under her belt, Chelsea Vidrine, 18, is the reigning St. Landry Parish Farm Bureau Queen.

It’s not as glamorous as it sounds.

“People sometimes get a little blinded by the TV shows,” said Vidrine, a dietetics major at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. “Most of the pageants that the girls in Louisiana involve themselves in aren’t glitz pageants.”

By “glitz pageants,” she meant corporate-sponsored, professionally choreographed and lit, all-expenses paid once contestants get to a certain level. With festival pageants, think service organizations or small businesses as the sponsors, dusty fat-baby boots as often as high heels, pay-as-you-go from your own pocket or your family’s.

All that can add up when a makeup artist charges $400 for a single session, a competition-ready gown can easily cost $700 and gas creeps past $3.50 a gallon.

Vidrine won her present crown in February. Since then, she’s traveled 1,500 miles within the state promoting the Farm Bureau and St. Landry Parish at various festivals and events.

It’s not unusual to see clusters of young women like her, tiara-and-sash-wearing pageant winners, at events throughout the summer and beyond. Name a town, an organization or a festival and it’ll likely have crowned a queen.

Like the 2014 Krotz Springs Sportsmen’s Heritage Festival queen, Lydia Faulk. Unlike Vidrine, Faulk, 19, started on the pageant circuit only a year ago after years as a high school tomboy.

She said she needed a new way to stay busy and meet people post-graduation. Her decision to trade jeans for gowns shocked her family.

“They thought it was a joke,” said Faulk, who majors in agricultural business at the University of Louisana at Lafayette. “I’d never been interested in that in my whole life. I’m very athletic; I played everything all through high school.

“My dad was like, ‘Are you really gonna wear a dress and get on stage in front of people?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, why not?’”

Faulk’s title, and the festival she represents, originated under unfortunate circumstances.

“It flooded in 2011,” Faulk said. “The floodgates opened, and that caused people to leave and not return, so they wanted to do something that would bring more people in and show them what’s good in Krotz Springs.” That’s where the carnival — with rides, live music, games and a festival queen — came in.

“It’s not just good for the town, but for St. Landry Parish,” she said.

“It’s really been one of the most rewarding things I’ve decided to do,” Faulk said. “I’ve met so many people that I would have never met if I never did pageants.”

The same goes for Vidrine, who affectionately calls the contestants she’s met her “rhinestone sisters.”

They are, to her, “like a big family.” The girls compete to act as ambassadors to their hometowns, attending festivals and encouraging commerce and charity.

“Festivals have always drawn my attention,” Vidrine said. “It’s more about personality and making friendships,” she said. “That’s probably the main reason I stayed in pageants: I made so many friendships.”

At the same time, she said, the queens engage in service and encourage others to do the same. “We take part in Relay for Life, and we help volunteer at cook-offs that benefit people.”

In case you hadn’t figured it out by now, it takes more than good looks to win a crown.

To earn royalty status in a Louisiana festival-style pageant, contestants must educate themselves on the history and culture behind their titles. That’s where diligence and commitment combine with poise and beauty to create a worthy representative.

“Farm Bureau really exposed me,” Vidrine said. “Everything we do, eat, farming takes a part in it. I feel like people might look down upon that job, but it’s one of the biggest careers out there. Farmers take up 2 percent of the world, and they feed the other 98 percent. That was the most eye-opening to me.”

Eyes rimmed with liner, shadow and mascara gain a special perspective on life in South Louisiana. Faulk and Vidrine said they’re grateful for the opportunities pageants have given them to regard their home in a new light.

“There’s more festivals out there than I’d ever imagined before I became queen,” Vidrine said. “You really don’t know the ins and outs of Louisiana and all the little towns and festivals until you see it through the eyes of a queen.”